From the Blog

Having trouble with trees growing too big? This customer did. These were planted not that long ago, and quickly grew to an unmanageable size. Our Cockatoo Tree Removal service was called in to help fix the problem.

The small trees we felled in Cockatoo were just the right size to fit into the backyard. When falling trees, it is really important to understand where they are leaning, and how the tree will behave as it departs the stump.

On many of the trees I fell today, I used rope and tackle to ensure that in the event of a mistake, or failure in the hinge, the tree would still fall in the intended direction. Ensuring that good distance is made from the tree by the use of escape routes is essential. Cockatoo, like Emerald, Avonsleigh, Clematis, Belgrave and other towns in Cardinia Shire – has a vast mix of tree species. Sometimes the tree can be felled, other times the tree must be climbed and lopped.

We had another emergency tree removal job today. A small tree had uprooted from the ground and was leaning out over the neighbours house and water tanks in Mt Evelyn.
Mt Evelyn is in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, not far from

Monbulk

Silvan

Montrose

Wandin

Kalorama

We couldn’t tell what exactly was holding the tree up – obviously it was branches, but by themselves they were not really strong enough to hold the tree in place.

The main priority on these kinds of jobs is getting the tree stabilised so it can fall no further. During the main storm damaged tree season, this can be difficult to achieve; it is darker sooner, often wet or rainy making everything heavier and more slippery to handle. In this particular case we had two strong high points, reasonably close to the tree that was tipping out of the ground. We also had enough daylight left to make the job not require extra lighting. There are some photos of the tree being rigged up and stabilised.

If you need help with trees that cannot be done by emergency tree services such as CFA or SES, we have the equipment and expertise to stabilise the tree.

Cardinia Shire is where Sherbrooke Tree Service is based, servicing the surrounding shire councils like Yarra Ranges.

Tree lopping and maintenance on rural properties is quite common for us. The range of works is everything from pruning, weight reduction, canopy thinning and trimming, through to large scale tree removals, lopping, cutting and felling.

The job we completed last week in Upper Pakenham was for a semi-rural property needing a fence line cleared of trees. Under the 10/30 tree removal laws set out by DSE, we were able to move along the fence line removing problem trees, and pruning trees that satisfied the owners needs.

Managing the trees land owners have is preferable over large removals, as they form important wind breaks and green corridors. Our experience in clear fell logging allow us to easily handle large volumes of tree removals, however we always encourage careful consideration when performing drastic changes to the vegetation – once they’re gone you can’t put them back up again!

On this particular job, the land owner was happy to do the clean up, however we also provide tree clean-up services such as mulching and stacking for fire heaps.

Had a job last week where a 70 feet tall dead tree had fallen into another tree over the top of a shed. I snapped a photo with my phone I descended onto it to work.

Looking down onto the uprooted tree over the shed.

After setting a large lowering line in another tree, I abseiled onto the tree below and tied it slightly back from the lowering centre point. This would ensure that as the tree is lowered the attachment point doesn’t shift too far ahead.

I then sent another line opposing the direction the tree will move as it loads up on the top line. This allows me to avoid shock loading the system, and complete control over where the tree goes. Another risk in shock loading the tree was the entire tree could possible snap in half as all its weight is put on one part. Gentle is best.

I then cut and lowered on branches that would affect the tree being lowered. After putting significant pre-load on the lowering device I positioning myself above the tree I was lowering, used a pinch-bar to lever it off the tree it was sitting on.

Then working the two ropes simultaneously lower the tree down.

Looking between the tree’s and the corner of the shed: The tree was lowered in between with absolute control.

The photo above is looking down from the top of the trunk, showing the tight squeeze where the tree was lowered.

By using efficient rigging techniques, this job was done in just over an hour. Achieving the same outcome using a travel tower would have taken significantly longer and in this situation been more expensive.